Snowmobiles and other small recreational vehicles such as four wheelers typically have an electrical system including an alternator, usually the permanent magnet type, attached to the engine, and thus operating it at varying speeds and frequency with engine rpm variations. This alternator is typically attached to a voltage regulator to control the AC voltage such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,955 the disclosure of which are incorporated herein by reference. FIG. 1 illustrates an arrangement of various headlamps and tail lamps shown as HL1 HL2 & TL which are connected generally without switches so that they're on at all times the vehicle engine is running. Various other loads represented by rL are controlled by switches such as S1.
As is typical in the industry today, the size of the alternator A is sufficient to produce rated voltage on the connected loads when the vehicle is moving, thus engine speed is above the point that would typically be clutch engagement. However, it is common in the industry at engine idle speed for the voltage produced by the alternator to be less than 50% of the rated voltage. Thus, the lamps are quite dim under idle conditions with the vehicle stationary. For both safety and marketing reasons, it is desirable to incorporate gauges, for some of these vehicles, to show vehicle speed and other parameters such as transmission status, fuel level, and four wheel drive engagement. These are a few examples of many possible functions of a multi function gauge. Typically gauges of this type are used on vehicles with a 12 volt DC electrical system to supply constant power to the gauge. Frequently these gauges contain microprocessor electronics that must be supplied power continually to function properly. While it is technically possible to redesign these gauges to work from a voltage lower than 12 volts DC, it is not economically normally feasible because of the very high quantities already in production for other applications such as automotive at nominal 12 volt DC. Thus, there is a need for modifying an electrical system, as illustrated with reference to FIG. 1 by way of example, for producing a 12 volt nominal DC output of sufficient current to operate a multifunction gauge.